Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling have an impressive track record in their design partnership with games like the excellent Palaces of Carrara, Tikal, Tikal II, Torres and Asara.  In fact, Kramer has won the Spiel des Jahres 5 times (twice with Kiesling).  So, I’m always interested in any game they create.

Glück Auf is a worker-placement mining game.  Each player has their own mine which has 4 levels (each providing a different type of coal) and a lift shaft down the centre.  The coal trucks you buy during the game must be placed on the matching level and they must also be placed on one side of the lift shaft of the tunnels they are in are torch-lit, or placed on the other if their tunnels are dark.

In the centre of the table is the main board where players place their workers to (a) gain coal orders, (b) gain cash, (c) buy mine trucks (which start coal filled in the relevant mine level), (d) gain movement points (which are used to move the coal and the lift to get the coal to the surface), and (e) deliver completed orders.  The action spaces for delivering orders allow a player to deliver any completed orders that match the action space’s transport method, i.e. a player using the delivery action space showing a train can deliver any complete orders they have with a train on them. Read the rest of this entry »

In Rokoko, players are tailors who are trying to gain the most notoriety at the royal ball of Louis XIV by outfitting the nobles.  As you can see from the image of the game (which is what caught my eye in the first place), it’s a Eurogame with quite a lot going on.  Plus, it’s by Eggertspiele and Pegasus Spiele so that also drew my attention.

Each round, players take turns taking one of the 6 actions such as gain resources (the different materials required to make outfits), gain patterns (the outfits to be made), hire employees, add a decoration to the ball’s location, etc.  Like you would expect from a Eurogame, players are trying to get the resources to make the best items, as well as other aspects, in order to score points.

However, it is not completely straight-forwards as simply picking an action.  Each player has a deck of employee cards (and they can hire new ones, and fire existing ones, during the game).  Each round, players secretly select 3 of their employees to use from their employee draw deck and they use each employee to perform 1 action.  Some actions can only be performed by specific types of employees; for example, the Master tailor can do any action; whereas, the Apprentice tailor can’t make a dress or hire an employee.

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Mauna Kea is a game about explorers fleeing from an erupting volcano.  This is not a co-operative game so players will be stepping over each other to reach the boats taking all the artifact they can with them.

During the game, players place tiles on the board to reveal the landscape.  Each tile without lava displays 4 smaller squares and these may contain artifacts (there are 17 white, 7 grey, and 1 black artifact in the game).  Some squares contain mountains which blocked movement.  Tiles with lava are added to the matching lava flow (there are 4 different flows) and an arrow shows the direction too.  Sometimes the lava flows split too.

The core game mechanic looks interesting as players have a few tiles in their hand.  On their turn, a player must play all of their tiles.  Tiles can either be placed on the board or they can be spent to earn movement points which the player then uses to move their explorers.  Each lava tiles shows on it how many movement points it is worth.  So, players will need to balance revealing new areas (thereby, hopefully, making a safe and beneficial pathway) and moving towards safety.  This definitely appeals to me as I do like multi-use items which the player can choose how to use them. Read the rest of this entry »

Image of prototype from Cliquenabend’s preview video. Click on the image to watch the video.

Bruxelles 1893 is a worker placement game with lots of game mechanics going on.  The setting is that players architects who are building Bruxelles in 1893.  The board is divided into two areas: the Bruxelles board and the Art Nouveau board.

Worker placement on the Bruxelles board locations is free (no coins); however, if a player wants to place on a location occupied by another worker, they must place one more worker than those already there; however, these extra workers go to jail/court when the player takes the action.  So, you can potentially use any action on the Bruxelles board but it may cost you workers.  The locations for workers on the Art Nouveau board is a grid and players must add coins to their workers when placing there.  The players with the most total coins in a column at the end of a round takes that column’s bonus card which can be used for either an instant bonus or saved for an end of point scoring effect.

The 5 actions are: gain resources for building, build a building, create a work, sell a work, and gain a character.  The income from selling a work (I believe a mix of cash and points) is based on the position of a marker on a grid – the income a player receives is based on the marker’s position and is adjusted by which player you are too.  So, changing the income marker’s position shifts all player’s potential income mix.  The resources required to build a building are determined by a dial and you can turn the dial after you construct a building.  Gaining characters gives a bonus but there’s a cost at the end of the game if you also keep the character. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m always interested in the history of the Knights Templar and I remember seeing a prototype of this game at Essen a few years ago.  Players send their knights in missions so they can gain money and relics.  A mission if successful if enough knights are sent and these can come from a mix of players, so there’s some possible collaboration.

Players can then buy and sell at the markets and events happen.  After this, players can send their relics to different locations to put them on display; however, transporting anything takes money and is safer if escorted by knights.  Of course, there are various enemies that may attack locations too, so players must allocate their knights and resources carefully.

Towards the end of the game, the persecution of the Knights Templar begins and players must try to rescue their relics and try to get them to their havens.  When the persecution starts, players can only use money where it is currently located too (whereas, up until then, a player can move their money freely between their bases).  The winner is the player with the most victory points scored during the game, plus points for relics, knights and cash in their havens when the game ends.

I love the setting and the game mechanics sound interesting too.  I definitely want to try this one.  More information and the rules can be found on Stratelibri’s Mystery of the Templars page: bga.me/templars

James.

Rockwell is a mining game which mixes a little bit of worker placement (as you place your vice presidents at the start of each round to gain different advantages in the drilling phase) with tactical moving of your drilling crews.  Drilling is a often a joint effort by multiple players – if there are enough drilling crews of enough total strength on a tile then the resources recovered are revealed and shared between the players present (regardless of the amount of crews they have there).

Splitting the resources gained is intriguing as the players involved share out as much as they can so they have the same and any remainder is given to the player with the ‘priority’.  Players can move other players’ crews by bribing them, or they can pay to hire temporary crews (who don’t take a share of any gains).  Players can sell what they mine and buy other resources like improved drilling crews, permanent mine shafts and safety equipment.  Each player is attempting to complete some of the achievements which score fewer victory points if other players have already completed them too.

So, Rockwell looks like it contains a lot of interesting tactical decisions along with some strategy too.  More information and the rules can be found on Sit Down’s Rockwell page: bga.me/rockwell

James.

Rampage is a dexterity game of giant Godzilla-like monsters smashing their way through a city.  Each player controls a monster which consists of a wooden disk for feet, with a wooden body/head section on top.  The city is divided into different neighbourhoods and buildings are built out of card layers with meeple as the supports between floors.

That may sound kind of normal but the game actually based on flicking, dropping and blowing.  Each turn, monsters get 2 actions.  To move your monster, you flick the feet disc.  To attack buildings, take your monster piece and drop it onto a building.  To blow a building down, place your chin on your monster piece and blow.  To throw a vehicle, place the vehicle piece on top of your monster and flick it.  Players get to eat any loose meeple in their current  neighbourhood.  Also, monsters can attack each other too – a successful attack removes one of their teeth which reduces how many meeple a monster can eat during a turn and are worth points too.

Each monster has a special ability as well as some other  powers.  Each player has a monster screen behind which they hide the meeple and monster teeth they gain, but rather than simply place items here (because that would be far too normal), players push items through the mouth slot in the screen.  Nice.

Rampage looks totally made a lot of fun.  More information and the rules can be found on Repos’ Rampage page: bga.me/rampage

James.

Spyrium caught my attention from the gameplay description.  It was only after that that I discovered it is designed by the creator of Caylus and Caylus Magna Carta (the latter being one of me favourite games).  So, this doubly interested me.

The game has steampunk-ish setting and players are each head of an industrial conglomerate an spyrium is a mineral high in energy.  The player who scores the most victory points (VPs) by the end of the game wins.

Spyrium uses a clever worker placement system where players place their workers in between buildings which are laid out in a 3×3 grid.  Players take turns either placing or activating a worker; however, once a player starts activating their workers, they can’t place any more during the current round, so you have to choose when to switch from one to the other.

Activating a worker allows the player to use one of the two cards that the worker is positioned between, so you have a choice until you use them.  The cards in the 3×3 grid are either characters (which give you one off benefits), buildings (which allow you to build your own buildings used for special effects in future turns), and patents (which give you on-going abilities plus score VPs at the end of the game too).

Using a card by activating one of your workers next to it costs money equal to the cost of the card being used plus the number of workers (of any player) that are positioned next that building.  So, placing your workers can hinder others, give you a choice of uses, and the order you use them in can make a difference too.  Workers can generate money too which is also based on how many other workers (of all players) are next to the same building. Read the rest of this entry »

Armadöra is a new game by Blackrock Editions who published The Boss in 2011 and Blackrock City in 2012. The Boss is one of my favourite games as it has a superb information revealing/deduction game mechanic, fits a lot of game into a short play time, and fits a lot of game into a very small box. Blackrock City was quite different in gameplay and was good too, (although not as good as The Boss in my eyes).

Armadöra appears to be a re-themed version of a game called Nuggets where players are trying to stake claims on gold mines. Various mines are on the board and players take turns either (a) placing their markers face-down (which have different strengths) on any empty board square, or (b) placing 2 fences between squares on the board. When an area is completely sectioned off by fences (so long as it’s large enough), the players’ markers in the area are revealed and the player with the most strength receives the gold for any mines in that section.

Armadöra has a fantasy adventure theme (with players after Dwarves’ gold) and has some extra rules for an advanced version. Sounds simple, fun with plenty of tricky decisions and entertaining tension. Read the rest of this entry »

Relic Runners looks like a nice light game of jungle/temple exploration.  It’s a race to grab as many victory points (VPs) as possible.  During the game, players place markers along jungle paths.  When a player moves, they can move along one continuous stretch of their own colour pathways (any distance), plus one section that is not their own as the first or last section of their move.  When a player reaches the end of their move, they can spend a ration to explore their location which means they can pick up a ruin tile or temple tile.

Most jungle paths have a marker next to them.  When a player passes any path markers that are face-up during their move, they turn them face-down and can advance their toolbox markers on their player board  These toolbox markers can be used at any time for the power/ability on which they are located – there are three separate columns they can advance up and the higher up the column, the better the power/ability.  Players can have multiple toolboxes on the same columns, and even the same spaces, if they want.

I like the sound of the toolbox markers as players can build up the different powers they want (a bit like a simple tech tree).  Also, I like the movement logic and the rush to grab the different tiles too.  Relic Runners sounds like a relatively light and fun game (I expect along the lines of Ticket To Ride). Read the rest of this entry »